Creating your own scent can be fun and rewarding

Musical notes are essential to make up a song. Various shades of colours help create a painting. In the same way fragrance notes are necessary to make a perfume. Generally, there are 3 note scales that when blended together create the perfume’s fragrant accord. Each of these levels has its own primary purpose.

The top notes

Sometimes referred to as the opening notes or head notes, they are generally the lightest of all the notes. The top notes are the ones we smell immediately upon application of the perfume. Given their light molecular structure,they are also the first to fade, but this does’nt mean they aren’t very important.

Heart or middle notes

The heart notes appear after the top ones wear off. They are generally floral, as most fruity notes are too light for this layer. They last longer than the top notes and have a strong influence on the base notes to come.

The Base Notes

The base notes are the final fragrance notes that appear when the top notes are completely evaporated. They mix with the heart notes to create the final touch of the fragrance. The job of the base notes is to provide the lasting impression. These often rich notes stay on the skin for hours after the top notes have dispeled.

Here is one of the many ways to make your own perfume, it’s a method I have used and am happy to share.

You can use essential oils or fragrance oils, although I think that anyone who is new to this should start with fragrance oils, the main reason being the cost difference between them.
Essential oils are natural products derived from flowers or plants, therefore it is not always possible to find the scent you want. Fragrance oils are usually synthetic blends diluted with an oil carrier.

If you decide to use essential oils, do not apply the fragrance before going into the sun light. This may cause decoloration of the skin that is very difficult or impossible to remove.

In order to make a long lasting perfume you will need base notes, middle notes and top notes. More about what are base, middle and top notes in later posts.

After you have found the right scent for you, you can go to the next step.

Depending on how much you want your perfume to last you can dilute the oil mix with different percentages of alcohol: 70% alcohol and 30% oils being the strongest recommended.
For example, I used 192 fragrance oils drops all toghether diluted into 17.5 ml of ethanol, meaning 70 % alcohol and 30 % fragrance oils. This may seam much, but the result you get is fabulous.

In my perfume recipe I used 10 different scents, but you can use more or less, depending on the combination that’s right for you.
During my process I used:
Perfume maker’s alcohol (Ethanol), a dark glass bottle, the chosen fragrance oils, pipettes and again, patience.

Put the ethanol in the bottle, add the fragrance oils according to the mix you tested, starting with the base notes and ending with the top ones. Shake it for a few minutes then store it in a dark place. Continue shaking it twice a day every day , and leave it set from 48 hours up to 6 weeks. The longer it sets, the stronger and the longer the smell will stay on your skin.

Perfumes touch our deepest emotions and reflect our spirit. What we wear, how we wear it, and where we wear it says a lot about us. A perfume should be as individual as the person who wears it, and what better way of doing this than creating your own unique blend according to your tastes? [...]